I first worked for "Buschemeyer's" a year ago in August.in October, I was told by the owner he wanted to retire "to spend more time with his wife". Plausible enough. His children all had other vocations, and his grandchildren were not interested. We drafted a letter of intent. I submitted that along with some "earnest money".
I waited, and continued to work. No more paychecks—all of it was going toward "the purchase of the business". I asked for the final draft of the "contract". Three months later, no contract. There were only exhortations on a daily basis to hold up "my end of the obligation"
Still no contract. I threatened to pull out. He then came up with the "contract".
It was a forged letter of intent—with the terms changed. No credit for all the labor, no credit for the money I put in. It was now going to cost me another one hundred fifty thousand dollars.
Theft by deception—since the terms of the contract named a business that had a variant of the Buschemeyer name. (and why not? He had seven different variants) with no valid DBA filed anywhere.
I was buying a pig in a poke, not a business.
I filed a criminal charge against the owner of the business for defrauding me, and a civil suit will follow.
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